Answer: Sounds like you started the chicken near the end of December. I would recommend the chicken formula only for 3 weeks as some cats require a much longer transition period. Also make sure you are not feeding low quality treats or other things that may have synthetic additives, flavors and colorings. Treats filled with these ingredients can cause digestive disturbance and allergic-type reactions. You can try the Halo Liv-a-Littles or some of our other natural treats that cats love. If after three weeks, your cats are still having tummy troubles, ask your veterinarian about a high quality natural probiotic to get them on their way to feeling better.

Hope that helps.
Dr. Donna Spector

The majority of pet owners don’t even read the label and have no idea what they are giving their pets, according to the study, brought to our attention by Generation Natural Pet, a social media community launched by PETCO (Halo is a founding Council Member).

Frighteningly, most pet foods — unlike Halo, which uses only real meat, fish and eggs — have chicken meal. Sounds tasty, right?

Well, dear reader, chicken meal is legally unfit for human consumption and may contain waste products from restaurants, supermarkets, meat processing facilities and packinghouses. It is not the lean muscle that WE eat, but the stuff humans are forbidden by law to consume: the remaining bones, organs, beaks and other products that are rendered (obtained by melting down the animal’s remains) in a processing plant when made into meal.

“Chicken meal sounds like something wholesome that could be served in any household,” says Halo’s veterinarian, Dr. Donna Spector. “But don’t be fooled. Meat meals — such as chicken meal — are unfit for human consumption. In my mind, that means unfit for our beloved pets.”

Yet ignorance is bliss: despite confessing no knowledge of the ingredients on a bag or can of food, the majority of the 1,305 pet owners surveyed say they treat their animals as a member of the family, and wouldn’t want to feed their pets food containing allergens and prefer to feed their pets only natural pet food.

Halo never uses chicken meal or other rendered meats. Halo uses real chicken that can be sold to humans and meets FDA human safety standards. And while we don’t advocate opening up a can of Spot’s Stewto share with your pooch, many of us have.

Answer: Managing diabetic cats can be challenging. One of the reasons their blood sugar varies so much from day to day and within a day is because many cats are still secreting some of their own insulin. There is no rhyme nor reason to when their body secretes it….it happens sporadically leading to some of these wide fluctuations despite a stable diet. One of the most important things you can do for your cat is to make sure he is eating all canned food–one with high protein and low carbohydrates. NO DRY FOOD! Following this diet plan can help cats lessen their needs for insulin or even revert back to a non-diabetic state.

Good luck.
Dr. Donna Spector

It’s true! We especially appreciate that this reviewer did an in-depth look at the ingredients – the key to choosing the best products. Thanks, dgrahame!

Click here for the whole review.

A: Most pets require 7-10 days to adjust to a new food because their intestinal tracts contain unique bacteria and enzymes that need to adapt to the proper digestion of a new food. It is recommended that dogs and cats eat a combination of dry and canned food every day. Their bodies are made of 75% water and they rarely drink enough water to support excellent hydration and organ function. I recommend that 25 to 50% of their daily calories come from canned food. You can feed it all at one time during the day or break it up into 2 meals…whatever is easiest for you.

Follow these guidelines for either dry, canned or preferably a combination of Halo food*:

Click here to read complete article.

Two weeks ago, Mister started drinking more water and urinating more. By the time I got him to the vet, (a week later, my vet said to wait because it could have been the heat), he had already lost one pound (17lbs to 16 lbs–he’s also large framed). She thought he looked so good physically that he could just really be drinking too much water because of the heat. But we did a full physical and bloodwork, and he was positive for diabetes. She prescribed injections of Lantus (glargine insulin) twice a day.

My vet is really busy, (but seems knowledgable), so hasn’t really talked to me much about the situation. Her assistant told me to not feed him your brand because of the carrots, peas and sweet potatoes in it. However, he is already looking so much better and losing weight, my hunches tell to stick to your program and get his weight down but I don’t want to do anything wrong and hurt him.

Is Halo okay for him? Is it okay to give him dry food throughout the day? The vet told me to leave just a little hard food down for him to graze on.

Sorry for being long-winded, but my vet just hasn’t had time to answer any of my questions. She is good, I like her, she’s just busy at this time of the year. Thank you very very much for your help, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

A: Thank you for your questions about Diabetes in cats. Hopefully Mister Kitty gets on the road to recovery with Halo right away!

Cats are very similar to people in that Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease. This means that they are still able to secrete insulin but their body is just not responding the way it should. The most common reasons for this “insulin resistance” are: obesity, inactivity, other diseases (such as bladder infections, pancreatitis, etc), medication usage (such as steroids) and DRY FOOD DIETS. Cats are carnivores and really should be eating a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. Most dry food diets are moderately to very high in carbohydrates and it is felt that the long term feeding of these foods often lead to problems with obesity and the development of diabetes.

All recent diabetic research in cats indicates that the very best thing you can do for Mister Kitty is put him on a COMPLETELY CANNED FOOD diet. This canned food should be high in protein and low in carbohydrates—the Halo canned Chicken and Salmon varieties are best. The carbohydrates it does have should come from fiber-rich vegetables and not things like corn and white rice. The fiber-rich vegetables are complex carbohydrates and do not immediately turn into sugar. Dry food should not be left down for him to graze on–this counteracts the beneficial things you are trying to do. NO DRY FOOD!

The remission rate is very high for cats once they switch to all canned food–the majority of cats will revert back to being “non-diabetic” in the first 4 months after this switch…and many of them do it in just a few weeks. It is critical that you watch his blood sugar carefully during this time to avoid episodes of hypoglycemia (which can be fatal if undetected) from too much insulin. The best way to monitor this is with at-home blood sugar checks. Ask your veterinarian how to do this. Don’t be surprised if his requirements for lantus (glargine) insulin start decreasing right away.

I know your veterinarian is busy, but you have every right to her time as any other client. Your cat has a serious condition and one that can be REVERSED if managed appropriately. Be an advocate for him to get the best care possible.

Hope this information helps. You can also see my article Feline Diabetes: A New Look at an Old Disease

Good Luck
Dr. Donna J. Spector

Click here to read blog.

Click here to see the news.

Click over to read Tracie’s extensive account of the radio spot, including responses to listeners’ questions about meat meals.

But a series of earnest inquires from her loyal followers led Tracie to the conclusion that some cat lovers must feed dry food. And when that’s the case, she felt she owed it to her audience to make a recommendation. In her own words, “if circumstances require dry food, it’s time I told you what you’ve been waiting for: which dry food is best?”

I’ll quote Tracie at length:

“I have recently been singing the praises of Halo’s Spot’s Stew. In fact, for the first time I have chosen it as the DOG food kibble that is head and shoulders above the others and which I am now feeding to my dogs as part of their daily meals. And the reason for the tap of the “Tracie Wand” is all about ingredients. For dogs we want a kibble made with the cleanest possible ingredients and with as high a protein content as possible – with cats this goes double, since their digestive systems are not designed for carbohydrates and they need real meat. Well that is what makes Halo’s Spot’s Stew in a class by itself. … Halo uses only meat that is “fit for human consumption” in their foods. Halo has made a moral decision that they will only use meat that people could eat…”

We’ve long been honored that Tracie Hotchner recommends Halo, and have recently become proud sponsors of her hugely informative web site. But this is an honor that we never expected. Thank you as always, Tracie, for helping consumer read (and understand) ingredients to make the best choices for their pets!

Read the whole story here on Tracie Hotchner’s blog.